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A comparison of Structure from Motion Photogrammetry and the Traversing Micro Erosion Meter for measuring erosion on rock shore platforms

Preprint published in 2018 by Niamh D. Cullen, Ankit K. Verma, Mary C. Bourke
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

For decades researchers have used the Micro Erosion Meter and it successor the Traversing Micro Erosion Meter to measure microscale rates of vertical erosion (downwearing) on rock shore platforms. Difficulties with upscaling of microscale field data in order to explain long term platform evolution have led to calls to introduce other methods which allow measurement of platform erosion at different scales. Structure from Motion Photogrammetry is fast emerging as a reliable, cost-effective tool for geomorphic change detection, providing a valuable means for detecting micro to meso-scale geomorphic change over different terrain types. Here we present the results of an experiment where we test the efficacy of Structure from Motion Photogrammetry for measuring change on rock shore platforms due to different erosion processes (sweeping abrasion, scratching and percussion). Key to this approach is the development of the Coordinate Reference System used to reference and scale the models, and which can be easily deployed in the field. Experiments were carried out on three simulated platform surfaces with low to high relative rugosity to assess the influence of surface roughness. We find that a Structure from Motion Photogrammetry can be used to reliably detect micro (sub mm) and meso (cm) scale erosion on shore platforms with a low Rugosity Index. As topographic complexity increases, the scale of detection is reduced. We also provide a detailed comparison of the two methods across a range of categories including cost, data collection, analysis and output. We find that Structure from Motion offers several advantages over the Micro Erosion Meter, most notably the ability to detect and measure erosion of shore platforms at different scales.

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